Applying Marxism: blog task

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #66: Applying Marxism. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What does Marxism suggest regarding power in society?
Karl Marx states that there is only a small amount of power within society which can be controlled by a single person or a group. These groups are the working class and the ruling class. Under capitalism, the ruling class hold the power, using this power to exploit the working class. Marxism suggests that the ruling class create systems with the power they hold in order to keep the working class beneath them and under their control.

2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?
The apprentice is a good example because it reinforces capitalist ideologies through the way that the show glorifies competitiveness. There is many contestants fighting for one spot and whoever is the best wins the spot. The risks they take can either make their business fail or make them money. Lord Sugar only invests in the person who believes will become successful and create him even more money, growing his empire.

3) Come up with three examples of media texts (e.g. TV programmes, newspapers etc.) that either fetishise working class life (e.g. EastEnders presents quite a harmonious East End community which probably doesn't accurately reflect East London life) or demonise working class life or poor people (e.g. The Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers regularly demonise people living on benefits with headlines referring to 'scroungers'.)

 Eastenders is an example of how the working class can be fetishised as a working class east-end estate wouldnt be as harmonious as it is depicted. There would many different issues such as crime and racism. However, the working class can also be demonised. We see this in the daily mail as they refer to people on benefits as "work-shy" and "scroungers".

5) Look at the bullet points on page 4 of the factsheet:

When making a Marxist reading of a text, look out for representations that:
  • show the values of the power elite as beneficial to the mass
  • show queries or challenges to the base as meaningless, foolish or anti-social via ‘failed revolt’
  • show the subdominant position of the masses as a naturalised idea
  • show the values of the power elite as ‘natural’ or ‘right’
  • show that being a member of the mass is a good thing
  • show the masses accepting the values of the power elite
  • show the values of the power elite as being ‘for the good of the masses’ (even when unpleasant)
Now apply those bullet points to Capital. Think about the setting, characters and narrative strands - how many of the bullet points apply to Capital? Does Capital reinforce or challenge the values of capitalism? Give examples from episode 1 to support your points.

Capital doesn't reinforce values of capitalism as the middle class family simply have more money rather than having power over their poorer neighbours. However they seem quite naive to the amount of money they have which shows greed that is within capitalism. We see this when Roger is outraged at his 'small' bonus of £30,000. The values of the power elite are seen as natural through Arabella as she is fixated that she 'needs' the wet room. She also speaks about their countryside home as if it is a necessity. The elite control the mass through order as on the train in the morning, there isnt any altercations or issues as they all follow rules to get to work. Standing on the right hand side of the elevators is a rule seen as 'normal' and 'right'. If you do otherwise, you are away from the mass which is seen as something which isnt good. This is an example of how the masses accept the values of the elite. Another example of this within Capital is when Roger has to accept that elites within his job have reallocated his bonus money regardless of his efforts simply because they are of a higher order than him. 

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